


Nameday Wish

by ariel2me



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-27 07:22:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19786009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ariel2me/pseuds/ariel2me
Summary: She remembered Ser Willem dimly, a great grey bear of a man, half-blind, roaring and bellowing orders from his sickbed. The servants had lived in terror of him, but he had always been kind to Dany. He called her “Little Princess” and sometimes “My Lady,” and his hands were soft as old leather. (A Game of Thrones)Daenerys Targaryen, Willem Darry and a nameday wish.(Written for Daenerys Targaryen Appreciation Week on Tumblr, for the prompts hope and longing)





	Nameday Wish

_That was when they lived in Braavos, in the big house with the red door. Dany had her own room there, with a lemon tree outside her window. (A Game of Thrones)_

_“No one ever kept me safe when I was little. Well, Ser Willem did, but then he died [.] (A Dance with Dragons)_

**________________________**

Dany tiptoed quietly into Ser Willem’s room. The master was ill and must not be disturbed, she had been warned repeatedly by one servant after another, but she needed to see for herself that Ser Willem was still alive, that he was still with them and he had not left them behind, like so many others who had died and left her and her brother behind. 

“Don’t fool yourself, little sister. He will _never_ get better,” Viserys had told her the night before, after Dany had asked him how long it would be until Ser Willem was well enough to eat supper with them, like he used to do. “He’ll die too, very soon, just like Father and Mother, just like our brother Rhaegar.”

“He won’t! He can’t!” Dany had protested, near tears.

“And when he is dead,” continued her brother, “his servants will sell us to the Usurper’s dogs even before his body is cold, make no mistake. We must be _prepared_. Prepared to run again, to run for our _lives_. We must be on our guard at _all_ times.”

“But if Ser Willem is dead, then who will keep us safe from the Usurper’s dogs? Where will we go, this time? Where will we run to?”

The Usurper’s dogs were hunting for them day and night, her brother had always warned her. That was one of her earliest memories in life, listening to her brother talking about the Usurper’s dogs and all the terrible things that would happen to them, if ever they were caught by those dogs. Dany was old enough now to understand that the Usurper’s dogs were _men_ , not actual dogs, but when she imagined them, and when she dreamed about them night after night, she could still hear them barking loudly and ferociously, and she could still see them chasing her and her brother in a large and terrifying pack.

For a moment, listening to his sister’s question about who would keep them safe after Ser Willem’s death, Viserys looked like he was about to cry himself. Dany would have gone to her brother, would have hugged him to try to make him feel better. Her brother was afraid too, she knew. He would never admit it, but she had overheard Viserys crying himself to sleep on many occasions. Perhaps her brother dreamed about that vicious pack of dogs too, and he woke up shaking like a leaf as well, like Dany often did.

Every time she woke from that bad dream, it was the image of Ser Willem’s kindly face that calmed her down, and the remembered sound of Ser Willem’s laughter that stopped her tears. Ser Willem would never let the dogs come close enough to hurt her and her brother. He would protect them and he would keep them safe, like he did when he spirited them away from Dragonstone, before the craven turncloaks in the garrison could sell them to the Usurper himself. Ser Willem did not like to tell the story of how he came to rescue them, however. “It is a sad story, my lady. A sad, sad story,”he would often say, so Dany had to imagine the details herself.

She went to her brother to embrace him, to tell him that she, too, often had bad dreams about the Usurper’s dogs, but Viserys would have none of it. “I don’t have bad dreams,” he denied, vehemently, staring crossly at his sister. “I am _not_ a scared and stupid little boy. I am the blood of the dragon, and I am the rightful king of the Seven Kingdoms. Who will protect us, you ask? _I_ will protect us, of course.”

But how could her brother protect them, when he was still a boy himself, when he still needed to be protected and to be kept safe, just like Dany herself? But she knew better than to say this out loud to her brother. Viserys would be angry, _very_ angry. She was not supposed to make him angry. She was not supposed to wake the dragon in him. He had warned her about that, over and over again. 

Ser Willem’s voice startled Dany. “Little Princess,” he called out from his bed. “There you are, my lady. Come now, come closer to me, so I can see you.”

Dany was so relieved that she almost wept. He was alive! Ser Willem was still alive, and he was well enough at least to call out her name. She approached the bed slowly, sitting down carefully at the foot of the bed. “How do you know it’s me, when your eyes are still closed?” she asked, with astonishment.

Ser Willem opened his eyes. With a smile, he replied, “I could smell you from afar, like a bear would smell honey.”

Dany giggled. “Do I smell like honey, Ser Bear?”

“No, you smell like lemons, my lady. Did you bathe in lemonwater? Or have you been picking lemons from that tree outside your window?”

Dany loved staring at that lemon tree more than picking the lemons, in truth, but she had indeed bathed in lemonwater that morning.

“I bathed in lemonwater,” she replied. “It’s a special treat, because today is my nameday.”

Viserys had called it “a most cursed day,” because her nameday, according to him, was also the day Dany had killed their mother, who was the only family they had left, thus throwing them at the mercies of strangers.

 _I never meant to do it! I never meant to kill Mother!_ Dany would always cry out, whenever her brother brought up the accusation, but that did not seem to matter to him in the slightest.

Ruefully, Ser Willem said, “Forgive me, Little Princess. I had forgotten about your nameday.”

Dany rushed to reassure him, “You have been very ill, Ser Willem. How could you remember?”

“Would you like a lemon cake to celebrate your nameday? Or perhaps a lemon pie with lemon cream on top? That is your favorite dessert, as I recall. I will tell Cook to bake it for you.”

The mention of lemon pie with lemon cream on top brought back a rush of happy memories. With his little finger that was actually wider than her thumb, Ser Willem had brushed the cream on her nose, and she had done the same to his eyebrows with _her_ little finger. “I am coloring your eyebrows, so they would look more like mine,” she had told him. Even Viserys had joined in on the fun, _that_ time, and by the time the meal was over, all three of their faces were covered with lemon cream. 

But _this_ was not the time for cakes, pies and creams. “I don’t want a lemon cake, or a lemon pie,” Dany replied.

“Not even a lemon pie with lemon cream?” questioned Ser Willem. “Surely you would love _that_ , Little Princess?”

Dany shook her head.

“Then what _do_ you want for your nameday?”

“I only have _one_ wish, for my nameday,” replied Dany, solemnly. 

“And what is that wish, my lady?”

Dany shifted her position to the head of the bed, to whisper in Ser Willem’s ear, “I wish that you would live for a very, very, very, _very_ long time. I wish … I wish … I wish that you could live _forever_ and _ever_ , and you’ll never leave us behind.”

Ser Willem sighed, heavily. He held out his hand towards his little princess. Dany grasped his hand with both of hers. 

“As long as I am still alive, as long as I still draw breath, no matter how weak and ill I have become, no harm will ever come to you and your brother, I promise you that. But I cannot promise you that I will live forever and ever.”

Dany lowered her head. “I know that,” she said, her voice barely audible. Of course she knew that. And yet –

“I will grant you another wish,” Ser Willem said. “A wish that you had on _my_ nameday. Do you still remember what you said at the time?”

Dany searched her memory. “Oh, I remember! I said that your house –“

“ _Our_ house, Little Princess.”

“ _Our_ house, yes.” Dany smiled. She continued, “I said that our house should have a name. And you said that you will think of a suitable name. Have you thought of one, Ser Willem?”

“I certainly have, my lady.”

“What is it?” Dany asked, eagerly.

“Lemontree Hall,” declared Ser Willem.

“Lemontree Hall? Why Lemontree Hall?”

“In honor of the lemon tree outside your window. The one you would gaze at for hours sometimes, your brother told me. What do you see, my little princess, when you gaze at that tree?”

What _did_ she see, as she stared and stared at that lemon tree?

She saw laughter and joy, kindness and happiness. She saw fingers smearing lemon cream on noses and eyebrows. She saw faces covered with lemon cream.

She also saw the home she was terrified of losing, the _only_ home she had ever known in her life.

“Lemontree Hall. I like it. I like the name very much,” Dany said, smiling as brightly as she could. 


End file.
